Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to simplify tender processes for education establishments to procure cloud-based virtual learning environments.

The department has published user tested procurement guidance on GOV.UK as well as approved frameworks as part of our Buying for Schools guidance. At present this does not currently provide a recommendation for virtual learning environments, but approved frameworks are regularly reviewed to ensure they meet the current and future buying needs of schools.

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are funding support for school to get set up on one of two free-to-use digital education environments: Google’s G Suite for Education or Microsoft’s Office 365 Education.